The Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 11

"Where's our hobbit?!!" Gandalf questioned. Dawn looked around and sure enough Bilbo was no where to be seen. Dawn took his word. From Bofur's strong grip hugging her, she couldn't quite move until he let go of his grasp finally coming to his senses that she was alive and unharmed. Well, except from small bruises and marks from the bone blade at her throat.

"Curse the Halfling. Now he's lost!" Gloin said. "I thought he was with Dori!"

"Don't blame me!" Dori whined.

"Oh, so seeing Bilbo is now a curse to you!" Dawn snapped.

"Well, don't you?" Oin asked.

"Don't ask her that. She a women. She wouldn't no the right answer," said Gloin. Dawn's jaw dropped. How dare he say that.

"NO!!! Because I care for people rather than think kindness is WEAKNESS!!!" she replied. Oin, Gloin, and Dori wouldn't admit it, but for a second they were scared. Before she could charge towards them and say some more, Fili grabbed her shoulder and kept her still.

"That's enough. All of you," Thorin scolded. Dawn stepped back, feeling an awkward pit in her stomach for making him angered.

"Then what happened." Gandalf asked.

"I'll tell you what happened!" Thorin spat. "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door"

Dawn looked at the ground. Did he really leave? She knew he was about to when he was with her and Bofur, but he would never leave while everyone was in harms way. It was not like him.

"We will not be seeing our hobbit again" he declared. "He is long gone" Then much silence came. Dawn thought to herself. This wouldn't be his way of saying goodbye. Not Bilbo.

"No he isn't"

They all startled and turned around to find the hobbit looking at them from a rock on which he was standing. Some of the dwarves' jaws dropped in surprise while others couldn't subdue the big relieved smiles from their faces.

"Bilbo Baggins!" Gandalf exclaimed. "I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!"

The hobbit stepped down from his rock and walked towards them, clapping Balin's shoulder as he walked past him. Dawn felt more that happy.

"Bilbo!" Kili sighted. "We'd given you up!"

"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked.

"How indeed?" Dwalin repeated in a lower voice. Bilbo then nervously chuckled an placed his hand lightly in his vest pocket, as he took a quick glance at each person.

"Well does it matter? He's back," Gandalf said, trying to lighten the mood.

"It matters" Thorin insisted. "I want to know. Why did you come back?"
Everyone fell silent after Thorins question. Why did he come back?

"Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have" he started, "and you're right. I often think of Bag-End. I miss my books...and my armchair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back...because you don't have one, a home. It was taken from you" There then was more silence. Everyone thought of his words. Dawn thought of when they talked in the cave. She remembered Bofur's words.

"No, you're right. We don't belong anywhere."

"But I will help you take it back if I can" he ended. He looked over at Dawn, who gave him one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen. And then, she couldn't resist. She walked over to him and hugged the hobbit tightly.

"I couldn't leave you," Bilbo said.

"And I'm glad you didn't," Dawn replied. As Bilbo looked up to the girl, he saw damage. He saw bruises and more dirt on her face then he last saw her, and there was a cut on her neck that was stained with blood.

"Dawn, what happened to you?" Bilbo questioned with such a look of concern.

"Oh...well...it got a bit rough over there. It's nothing...really."

"If only I believed your words and not your neck." Before Dawn could protest, Bilbo ripped the piece of cloth Bofur gave him as a handkerchief earlier the journey and had it wet with some water. He then began to lightly remove the stained blood, and dabbed the wound.

"Bilbo, I'm fine, really." Dawn and Bilbo then sat down and were silent. Dawn barely noticed that Fili was looking at her along with Bofur with a concerned look. She was too lost in her mind. But their calm rest soon ended when a sharp howl ripped through the wind. Dawn knowing what it meant, began to breathe heavily, and ran.

"Dawn!!!" Fili shouted. He then followed her, fearing that if he did not see her, he would never again.

"Out of the frying pan..." Thorin whispered.

"...and into the fire!" Gandalf finished his sentence. "Run!"